Goal: Thank Andersson and the rest of Starbreeze Studios for denouncing the sexist externally-made promotional video for their Payday video game series

About nine months ago, a short promotional video was made to help garner excitement for an upcoming movie based off the popular PC gaming series Payday: The Heist. The video featured two Top Model Sweden contestants being portrayed in an overly sexual manner as they wandered around the offices of Overkill Studios (a subsidiary of Starbreeze and Payday’s developer) chatting with members of the Overkill team and making lewd jokes and innuendo.

When the video recently went viral on Youtube, Starbreeze CEO Bo Andersson released a statement to set the record straight: “The YouTube piece that was spread today was an external pitch made to us (amongst many) almost nine months ago. It was related to the potential Payday movie and not game. We did not design it or distribute it. Part was shot in our office but then cut externally. We felt it did not portray our values as a company in any way after seeing the final cut. Therefore it was rejected some nine months ago. Unfortunately it ended up on the internet as part of someone’s CV (outside of our company). We have never as a company depicted women this way nor shall we in the future.”

Help thank Andersson and the rest of Starbreeze Studios for denouncing the sexist “beautiful women in movies and video games” trope that is so prevalent in the video by signing this petition.

PETITION LETTER:

Dear Bo Andersson and other Starbreeze Studios employees,

Thank you for taking the time to set the record straight regarding the sexist promotional video that was released in anticipation of a movie based off your Payday: The Heist game series. Despite all the progress game developers and publishers have made trying to distance themselves from tropes that portray women in a demeaning or overly sexual fashion, sadly there are still a lot of people out there who refuse to come out of the dark ages.

I don’t think the phrase “sex sells” will ever be completely erased from the human consciousness, especially when it comes to popular media outlets such as movies and games, but it’s comforting to know there’s at least one game developer out there who refuses to indulge in such degrading practices. By signing this petition, I am personally thanking you not only for denouncing the video, but also for denouncing sexism in general.

Sincerely,

[Your Name Here]

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